


off the beaten path

by tigriswolf



Series: comment_fic drabbles [133]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, Gen, Pre-Canon, Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-14
Updated: 2013-03-14
Packaged: 2017-12-05 06:17:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/719826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sparks are dangerous things, when left unattended. [AU pre-canon]</p>
            </blockquote>





	off the beaten path

**Author's Note:**

> Title: off the beaten path  
> Disclaimer: not my characters  
> Warnings: character death; AU  
> Pairings: none  
> Rating: PG  
> Wordcount: 550  
> Point of view: third  
> Prompt: Any, any, _Run boy run! This world is not made for you_  
>  Run boy run! They’re trying to catch you  
> Run boy run! Running is a victory  
> Run boy run! Beauty lays behind the hills (Woodkid, “Run, Boy, Run”)

Dad dies in the last day of October, in a stupidly simple domestic gone wrong. 

Stiles is twelve.

.

He runs. His dad's brother is on the way to get him, and Scott is with his father down in Arizona, and Mrs. McCall is awesome, really she is, but Mom's only been dead for four years and that's not long enough to heal, nowhere near enough, and now Dad is _gone_.

Dad's gone, and Stiles is no one's problem but his own.

So he runs. 

.

He stopped being Allandros when he was eight. He stops being Stiles when he's twelve. 

.

Every time someone picks him up _just to the next town, I promise_ he changes his name. Every bus ticket is someone new. 

He slips through the cracks and crosses the continent, and it takes the better part of a year and every ounce of his creativity and determination, but he kneels down on the Atlantic shore somewhere in Georgia and breathes in the ocean. 

He breathes and breathes and breathes. 

.

That same night, he meets his first werewolf. 

.

The next night, he meets his first hunter. 

.

_The werewolf was young, maybe twenty. He was running scared, banked rage caught in his throat, and if he’d been thinking clearly he would’ve run the other way._

_But he ran for the water, and ended up in a no-name town in Georgia, and found a kid sitting on the beach at night, bathed in moonlight._

_He actually tripped over the kid, catching himself before sprawling on the sand, and the kid yelped, scrambling into a crouch and glaring up at him._

_The moonlight was bright enough for the kid to see everything._

_When the werewolf ran, the kid followed._

_._

_“I know you’re here, puppy,” the woman called, laughing. “C’mon, let me make it an even dozen. I already got your burnt-up uncle and bitch sister – you’re all alone, kiddo. Aren’t you tired of running and hiding like a pussy?”_

_The werewolf’s eyes were closed, his hands pressed so tight against his ears that his fingers were turning white. The kid was tucked up beside him, eyes wide open and angry, listening to a stranger say horrible, terrible things._

_The werewolf still hadn’t realized why the kid was familiar, but the kid had already figured it out._

.

Sparks are dangerous things, when left unattended. 

.

Kate Argent is found on the beach in Georgia, a burnt-out husk holding a gun that solves four cold cases. Laura and Derek Hale are still missing, last seen in Tennessee. An Amber Alert is still in effect for Allandros ‘Stiles’ Stilinski, last seen in Oklahoma till he caught sight of the state trooper and started running again. 

.

“You should go home!” Derek shouts, eyes red as blood. 

“I don’t have a home!” the kid shouts back. He’s still musing about what name to pick now that he’s decided to stick around; at the moment, he’s leaning towards Rafe. 

“You can’t – ” Derek starts, but the kid holds up a hand. 

“No,” he says, letting all levity drop. “You need a keeper and I need company. Neither of us has anyone, Derek.” 

“Fine,” Derek growls. “But the first time you slow me down, I’m turning you over to the cops.” 

Rafe doesn’t even have to hear his heartbeat to know he’s lying.


End file.
